The Islamic and Western social contracts

January 5, 2010

Proffessor Fathi El-Shihibi

For a long period of time I was searching
for the right answer to explain the ongoing contention between
Islam and the West regarding most aspects of life from the
attitudes towards faith, to the views governing rationalism, to the
definition of democracy and human rights.

I needed an answer that transcends all other answers which I
consider either incomplete or lacking in one area or another.

An answer such as Islam's emphasis on certainty as opposed to the
Western creative doubt being the corner stone of Hobbs'
utilitarianism but most importantly the age of the enlightenment,
actually stands out as being the closest to a genuine and plausible
explanation.

What finally enabled me to find what I believe is the genuine
answer was my being acquainted with the Arabic/Islamic as well as
Western cultures due to years of schooling, firsthand observations
and research.

I was reading about the Western social contracts according to
Thomas Hobbs, John Lock, David Hume and Jan Jack Rousseau among
others when it occurs to me that central figures in Islam beginning
with the prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors or caliphs
have in one way or another articulated and outlined a social
contract for the Muslims that guide all aspects of their
lives.

The Islamic contract I intend to briefly outline is not limited to
the marriage contract but is inclusive of the fundamental and
innate ethical and practical source of the Islamic morality.

To actually learn the main tenets of the Islamic social contract
one needs only read Prophet Muhammad's farewell sermon on the mount
to the Muslims before his death in the year 632 AD.

However, since the main thesis of this article is to briefly
compare the Islamic and Western social contract and consequently
arrive at the main source of contention between the two entities we
will start by defining the fundamental tenants of the two
contracts.

The first is the innate nature of human beings. While Thomas Hobbs
concludes that humans are innately selfish therefore free will has
to be placed in check by implementing laws that sets boundaries and
maintain peace between citizens of the state, in the Islamic
contract humans are innately unselfish but can become selfish not
by fault or design but due to outside circumstances that trigger
impulses such as need or greed.

According to the Quran man is born in a natural state of submission
and true repentance can return one to a sinless state as in the
Christian dogma.

Selfishness in Hobbs' views can also be seen as a manifestation of
the original sin which does not exist in the Quranic version of the
story of creation and the fall.

The second concerns power and authority. Whereas Hobbs see power
and authority as reciprocal between the central authority hence the
state that enforces laws and the people who invest the state with
that power, the Islamic social contract and being derived from the
Quran, maintains that power first and foremost belongs to
God.

God, being the ultimate authority, delegates some of that authority
to the leadership that delegates it to the people through divine
laws. Muslims in turn surrender their power and destiny to God
being both all powerful and eternal through their Islamic rituals
including the confession of faith, the daily prayers, fasting
during the month of Ramadan, giving unselfishly to the poor and the
needy and the pilgrimage to the Abrahamic shrine in Mecca.

In essence while Hobbs' social contract is a two way relationship
between people and authority, the Islamic social contract sees
authority as being central thus maintaining a circular motion that
begins and ends with God being the ultimate authority.

The last aspect of this comparison relates to the purposes and
priorities of human existence. This is actually an extension to the
contracts' definition of human nature in addition to human
destiny.

On the one hand Hobbs maintains that humans are free to fulfill
their needs, be those materialistic, emotional or physical while
abiding by certain moral and ethical codes not necessarily of
divine origins. The Islamic contract, on the other hand, ascertains
that it is selfish to focus on the material fulfillment at the
expense of the spiritual one.

Also to be a good Muslim and a model citizen is to maintain a
balance between the two dimensions of one's existence hence this
life and the life to come ensuring in the process material and
spiritual gains. A Muslim's contract is with God not the political
authority.

Hobbs social contract acknowledges the existence of confirmed and
hypothetical certainties. These being human existence in the
natural world and the existence of the universe and both are
propelled by mechanics hence action and reactions. The Islamic
contract confirms two certainties meaning earthly and divine
existences.

The former existence can be proven by the Quran and the natural
world and the latter by the testament of the Quran. Once these
three basic dimensions of the two social contracts are established
and understood everything else eventually falls into place just
like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.